A Day in the Life - Scholar

8.00am I usually get to school at about 7.45am so I can have some quick breakfast, which is free for all scholars, and then either finish up my homework or read a book in the Library and Computer Room, or play some football in the playground and chat with my mates.

8.25am The school day properly starts at 8.25am with line-up, where our Pastoral Director gives us any news for the day and we get into our class groups for Period 1.

8.30am The school day properly starts at 8.30am when I head to Morning Meeting. This is half an hour every morning where my entire year group gets together with our Pastoral Director for reading, reflection, prayer and working on our timestables. The reading and prayer are often about what's happening in the world that week. I really enjoy this as I find it interesting and helps me to get into the right mood to start the day.

9.00am By 9.00am I'm in my first lesson and ready to learn.

At AASA we don't have a morning break, but I’m allowed to drink water at any time during lessons or go to the toilet if I need to.

At AASA we use lots of hand signals, rather than just sticking our hands up – This allows the teacher to know straight away that I need to go to the toilet, have question or want to add something to the discussion.

11.45am After 3 lessons we have lunch (if we're in Year 7 or 8. Years 9 and 10 have lunch at 12.40 after Period 4); the two houses that had the best attendance the week before get to go in first. The menu changes every day, and there’s a few options so there’s always something I like the look of! Staff usually eat with us, which is nice as it gives me a chance to talk to them outside of lessons. After I’ve had lunch I go and have a quick play in the playground before we go to line-up at 12.15.

3.00pm At 3.00 every day we do something different:

On Monday we go to the Commons for the Principal’s assembly.

On Tuesday we have Academic Tutor Time

On Thursday we have Academic Tutor Time or a year assembly

On Friday we have Shout Out

We finish at 2.30 on Wednesdays, straight after Period 6, as all the teachers have training every week. I usually stay in school to take advantage of the extra hour to play football!

Year 10 stay until 3.00pm on Wednesdays, as they have an extra period to get ready for their GCSEs.

Shout Out on Fridays is really fun; we all go into the Sports Hall to the sound of drums, and then we all gather together and do our Academy Shout Out. Teachers then give loads of us certificates (we get up and shake their hands as it’s presented to us) for the week, two scholars with perfect attendance for the week get a special prize and the attendance cup is given to the house with the best attendance that week. It’s really exciting when we win!

At the end of every day I make sure that my bag is packed with all the equipment I need for the next day (including sports kit if I have PE) and my uniform is ready.